Bovine pericardium is used in xenograft technology, including for example, for the manufacture of artificial heart valves which are implantable into humans. “Raw” bovine pericardium is harvested from slaughtered animals within an abattoir. The “raw” pericardium is covered with a layer of thick fat. The harvested pericardium undergoes a cleaning process in which the fat layer is removed. The “raw” pericardium is dipped in cold saline bath, so as to congeal the fat. The fat is removed by placing the pericardium on a board and pulling, scrapping and tearing the fat off.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,332 B1 discloses a scrapping tool for removal of fat from a human pericardium during an operating procedure in which the patient's pericardium is modified to reduce the risk of heart attacks. This same tool could conceivably be used to scrape the fat off Bovine Pericardium. The current employed cleaning process for bovine pericardium produces low quality pericardium. The pericardium becomes mushy due to the blunt trauma applied to it during the cleaning process. This results in a high proportion of harvested pericardium being rejected.